Why Every Product Manager Needs A Flux Capacitor

Great Scott Marty, We’re running outta time!

While we’re still waiting for hoverboards and self-drying jackets, we can still look at the Back To The Future trilogy and take away some lessons from Doc’s Brown time machine.

No, it’s not driving at 88MPH, but Doc’s flux capacitor (and somewhat interesting planning methods) has a few hidden life lessons for product managers.

Make design decisions based on data

Needing to get back to 1985, Marty seeks out Doc’s help. Unaware he had only just hit his head and came up with the concept of the flux capacitor, which would in turn set off a domino effect bringing Marty to his door in 1955, Marty now has to rely on his knowledge of the future to figure out a plan with Doc Brown. And fast.

Good thing Marty hands Doc a flyer from the future recounting the lightning strike. It’s this critical piece of information that Doc uses to design a plan to get Marty back to 1985.

“Data-driven design looks to ship fast, optimise at every step and let the data drive many of the design…